Sports Games

Almost two months ago, Mortal Combat landed for the first time on the iPhone, bringing with it high expectations especially after the great success of Street Fighter IV, which showed how the touch controls (if designed to perfection) could make any fighting game playable. For the debut of the popular series of Midway on the IOS device, EA Mobile has chosen Ultimate Mortal Combat 3, first published in '96 for Saturn and SNES and landed over the years also NDS, Play station 2 and Xbox 360.

Tradition has it that Ed Boon (the father of the series with John Tobias) has always been considered the 2D best episode of the series and, with the new Mortal Combat Warner Bros. Games just around the corner, there's nothing better than to brush up this classic of the '90s and return it as food to fans of fighting games more gore than ever.

The version we reviewed is the iPad, available on the App Store a few days and, apart from some small addition, almost identical to the previous iPhone. We are not referring only to the increase of resolution and the more comfortable interacting with the icons on the display, but also to the exclusive duel mode that allows you to play one on one iPad. In this case, the double set of commands (one right and one left), but despite the generous size of the screen, it is quite uncomfortable to play with a friend pretty much attacked us and to control their own space fighter becomes much too small.

However we appreciate the effort by EA Mobile in offering something new compared to the previous version, even if not sorry to find no concession to online, in favor of the canonical local multiplayer via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. The other game modes offer a classic arcade-Tournament divided into four levels of difficulty, a Survival Mode and fun Shako Carnage, where we will be able to do as much damage as possible to this very bad bosses and then compete with your score in worldwide leader board of the game. The irons in the fire are not lacking, but at the level of content in-game Ultimate Mortal Combat 3 is without a little 'taste in my mouth.

Compared to the more than twenty characters of the original game, here we find only thirteen (initially nine plus four to unlock), as well as the arenas are only ten and sixteen. Fortunately, there are the faces of the most famous series (Scorpion Sub-Zero) and do not exclude that a future upgrades of the game (now at version 1.0.5) can add more, but at the time fans have a deep roster of fighters almost halved.

The first thing you notice when playing Ultimate Mortal Combat 3 is the transformation of the graphics, rendering the past in a typical polygonal backgrounds and wrestlers instead of the original digitized sprites. A betrayal inconceivable to many, but we think this "update" was made with great care, respecting the one hand the similarity with the original look of the game and improving the other animations, now much more fluid and believable. Even the backgrounds of the arenas, although not rich in details, they make a good impression on the iPad (but also imagine the retinal display iPhone 4), and menus, written in-game screens and the pre-fight seemed to us much less cured and almost amateur when compared to the rest of the game. The rock chart is still exceeded, and the fluidity did not give any problems, even with optimal maintenance of arenas full of details and animations.

The biggest obstacle for a title like this, however, remains tied to the touch controls, and on this side the verdict is unfortunately negative. Not that Ultimate Mortal Combat 3 is unplayable (and compared to most iPhone icon size does not help much), but after Street Fighter IV, we would have expected something much more precise and not such a backward step. The biggest problem is all in the poor response to touch of the analog stick and various buttons, with a delay rather large and even the complete absence of response. These problems do not occur always, but usually the captain of the second or third round encounter. Jumping in the desired direction, dip and run combo can then become a real frustration, especially when the touch of a button and nothing happens. If desired, in addition to changing the layout of the icons on the screen, you can opt for a configuration to five buttons instead of six classics, which facilitates the execution of the attacks more complex due to the S button (Special), but the control system remains equally mediocre and it is fortunate that Ultimate Mortal Combat 3 does not belong to the ranks of fighting the most complex and realistic.